Heaven Is a Zombie Apocalypse
by ZipCode
Summary: Sayaka and Kyouko come back to life. But every miracle requires a sacrifice. Fluff, angst, shipping. Chapter Three: The plot thickens.
1. Chapter 1: Sounds of Silence

**Chapter One: Sounds of Silence**

**by ZipCode**

* * *

Sayaka came to life with a strangled gasp.

Ugh. Dust in her throat. Dust in her _eyes_. Ow. Owowowow. After a second of blind panicking, the teal-haired girl realized something.

She was alive.

But…

But that wasn't right.

Sayaka had given up… she was _sure_ she had just…

Confusion rifled through her brain. The last thing she remembered was - right, yes, there had been a train station and - and she had been talking to someone… who? Red hair… name, so familiar, on the tip of her tongue and she had been… she had been showing her soul gem… dark blue, webbed with cracks of green…

Prettiest… prettiest thing you ever did see… that green color… like… seaweed… yes, just like… seaweed… from heaven… and she had been a fish… swimming through the… and… there had been all those suitors that…

Adrenaline shot through her.

Then anger.

No. No, it was ugly, it was hideous, it was poison. It _wasn't her_. That _wasn't_ her.

"Kyouko," she managed to gasp. She didn't remember – couldn't remember – but she knew something awful had happened. Something awful had happened and it was her fault. "Kyouko," she said stronger, more urgently. "_Kyouko_."

No answer.

Drat.

She cracked open her eyes. Everything hurt. Her vision was blurry. A stench – something putrid and rotting – assaulted her nostrils and she nearly gagged.

Focus Sayaka, _focus_.

Her body was just hardware right? Get up. Get _up_. This is your zombie soul ordering you to get _up_.

She flopped uselessly for a few moments before taking a deep breath. Alright, zombie soul not doing what it was advertised to do. Figured.

"Kyouko?" She whispered again. "Ma…" A pang of guilt.

'_Madoka, you really want to help? Then become a puella magi! That way-'_

Why – why had she said those things – why had she said such vile, _hurtful_ things to her best friend? That wasn't… that wasn't her. It couldn't be. "Madoka?" She begged.

No answer.

Deep breath.

She was a puella magi. She was a puella magi that focused on healing. She wasn't sure _what_ was wrong with her body, but if she focused… flesh re-knit, her breathing eased, eyes started focusing and the pain went away. There was an unfamiliar ceiling staring at her, but that might have been just the darkness. It was probably night. She flexed her fingers. Wiggled her toes.

Ugh, the _smell_.

Taking a deep breath, Sayaka swung herself off the bed and got to her trembling feet. Nearly collapsed.

"Kyouko?" She asked the darkened bedroom. "Madoka?" She licked her lips. It was possible she had died. "Ma-mami? Any – anyone?" She swallowed. "Please – I don't – I don't want to be alone. Please, I just-"

The back of her head was ambushed by a pillow.

"Arrg, do you _ever _shut up?"

* * *

Kyouko had been having a good dream.

Everything had been bright and cheerful and _normal_. Dad had ruffled her hair and laughed when she had pouted. Mom had baked a cake that smelled a little off but that was alright because it wasn't like they could be picky about what they ate anymore and Anko-chan had _laughed_ and everything was really, _really_ alright.

"Oh geez, Kyouko-chan don't cry-"

"I'm _not_ crying," Kyouko said proudly, sniffling as she rubbed her eyes. "I have, um, I have _allergies_. Yeah. Serious, serious allergies. Hay fever like you have never seen."

Her parents gave each other a soft, shared grin that parents sometimes gave each other when they believed that they saw through their children's facades and it was so _condescending _and so _normal_ that Kyouko's allergies went into overdrive.

"Onee-chan," Anko whined. "Onee-_chan_. Stop crying! We made you cake!" There was frosting in her hair. She held up a grubby hand to tug at Kyouko's skirt. "I helped! Mommy said I helped lots and lots!"

Kyouko knelt down and gave Anko a brief hug. Before the moment became overly sappy and her parents started to suspect that she was on drugs or something she then did a one-eighty and gave the tyke a noogie. "I'm _not_ crying you little pipsqueak. I have _allergies_."

Anko squirmed. "Mommy! Daddy! Heeelp!"

Father laughed.

Kyouko had always liked Father's laughter. It boomed big and strong and stable.

Stable.

After everything had settled down, they all got into position around the table. Father said grace.

"Amen," came the chorus.

Before they ate, Father announced: "Now I know, I _know_ that things haven't been easy. But we'll get through this. I promise. Have faith, if not in me, then in Him."

"Dear, we never doubted you," Mother said sagely, cutting into the cake.

The smell – of something sick and rotting – became stronger.

Kyouko ignored it.

"Yeah Dad!" Kyouko said, fist pumping in the air. "You're the best! All those dummies-"

"Now now, no name-calling," Father said sternly.

"Dummy! Dummy!" Anko parroted happily.

"All those other douchebag priests don't know what they're talking about." Kyouko harrumpfed, crossing her arms.

Dad gave a helpless laugh. "Well, I'm glad you have such faith in me but remember that the good book-"

_Kyouko._

Her head whipped around.

"Did you hear that?" She asked her parents.

Mom looked at her in concern. "Hear what, dear?"

_Kyouko…_

Kyouko frowned and shrugged her shoulders. "Nah, I just thought someone called my name."

_Kyouko…_

Her head whipped around again and she furrowed her brow. "Hear that? Some girl was_ totally_ calling my name."

Father and mother both looked at her in concern. Dad put a hand to her forehead. "You do feel a trifle warm," he said uncertainly.

_Ma…Madoka?_

Kyouko decided very firmly to ignore the voice. She hadn't eaten in a while. Clearly it was affecting her ears or her brain or something. Or maybe the devil was speaking to her. She mentally gave the devil the middle finger, just in case.

_Kyouko?_

"I'm fine," she said, grabbing Father's hand and giving it back to him. "Just –ha ha – clearly my imagination. Let's not waste this _excellent_ cake that mom made."

Mom coughed. It was a 'hem-hem' sound that was clearly fake but she smiled hugely. She gave Kyouko a slice. It glistened and squirmed and smelled even more terrible. Kyouko swallowed but forced a smile on her face. It wasn't like they could afford to be picky.

"Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Thanks little sis!" She chirped, picking up her fork. "Best birthday _ever_."

_Madoka? Ma-mami?_

Kyouko's eyebrows ticked as she brought the spoon to her mouth.

_Any-anyone? Please-_

Kyouko threw the spoon down. Damnit, damnit, _damnit_. _Why_ was that insufferable girl _always_ making her feel guilty?

"Kyouko-chan, what are you doing?" Mother asked, alarmed.

"Kyouko-" Father started to say.

_I don't – I don't want to be al-_

Kyouko stood. Her allergies were acting up again.

"I'll be back soon," she wanted to say but couldn't get it past the lump in her throat. Her family's faces suddenly became disturbingly gentle, even Anko-chan's. Then they nodded, all at once.

For a moment she saw grinning skulls and maggots but she kissed them all anyway because they had waited, they had _waited_ and they would wait longer and-

And then.

And then the world shattered.

* * *

Coming back to life was a lot less interesting than Kyouko thought it would be. In fact, it didn't feel any different from waking up after a long nap. Look, she was even in her own bed.

Blearg, what was that _stench_?

And hey, Sayaka was still trying to throw herself a pity party.

Kyouko grabbed her pillow and slung it across the room. "Arrg, do you _ever_ shut up?"

The teal-haired girl's expression, framed by nothing stronger than filtered moonlight, was priceless. "You-" Her face looked like it was trying to reboot. "You're not – I – I –"

"Kyouko_._"

There was so much emotion packed into that one word that the redhead in question was momentarily struck speechless, mostly from surprise. Then there was a noise like rubber slamming into wood and Sayaka was somehow tackling her right off the bed. Kyouko hit the ground with a yelp, hundred pounds of schoolgirl trembling on top of her.

"_Ow_. Sayaka-" She complained.

"I thought I – I thought-" the other girl babbled and Kyouko could feel her hyperventilate, breath hot on her face. "I thought I dreamed, I dreamed I was a fish in a pond, right? And I – and I was was being serenaded by a thousand different musicians except not the one I wanted. And then the fisherman came and- and- Kyouko I think that I-"

Kyouko very carefully flicked Sayaka on the forehead before the lunatic chatter got out of hand and she went all Cthulhu on them.

Again.

Sayaka reeled backwards, hands clutching her forehead. "Owch!" Green-blue eyes stared balefully at her from the darkness, their half-remembered rivalry flaring up. "What was _that _for?"

"You," Kyouko pointed out, "are giving me a headache." Then she added, because Sayaka hadn't seen fit to release her legs: "Now get off. I need food."

There was a moment of fumbling where neither of them blushed. True story.

Kyouko straightened out her puella magi getup and tried to turn on the lights.

No dice.

Drat.

Electricity wasn't working. Not exactly surprising. If she hadn't been here she hadn't paid the bills. Someone had probably disconnected the electricity. Or maybe the light had just _happened_ to blow.

Or…

"Kyouko, what are you-?"

Kyouko followed the wall until she met the window. She pushed aside the blinds – just a hair's width – and peeked out.

The streetlights weren't on either. Pitch black darkness met her eyes. She could vaguely make the out the skyline and dark buildings but beyond that… all she could make out were details visible by moon and starlight.

Huh.

"Electricity's out," she reported glumly. "I _hope_ that smell isn't my poor, powerless fridge plus two months worth of rot."

Shudder.

All that wasted food-!

Sayaka planted herself blindly in front of the redhead. Her voice was strained. "Kyouko, what's going on? I'm… I'm supposed to be dead, aren't I? I remember – there was… there was a price to pay, happiness for unhappiness and now-"

"Yeah, I have no idea what's going on either," Kyouko confirmed cheerfully. She patted Sayaka's shoulder. Or what she hoped was her shoulder. It felt bony anyway. "But hey, you're not three stories tall pretending to be a mermaid cosplaying as a knight so all-in-all I think it's a plus."

She marched off, clambered over the bed, grabbed the flashlight that she usually used while raiding the local convenience store for candy and had nearly made it to the door before Sayaka managed to say anything. It came out a bit strangled.

"_What?_"

* * *

Fridge was a total loss. Bummer.

Also? Although rancid, it was not the source of the smell that seemed to permeate every inch of her rather sizable apartment. Weird. Her nose was getting used to it but it still _reeked_.

Heating and water were also out. Thankfully the preserves were still intact. Kyouko tossed Sayaka a bottle of water and a box of pocky. They'd at least have to wait until dawn for the stores to open up.

Especially since Sayaka was eying the pocky suspiciously_._ Looked like robbing convenience stores was soon going to be a thing of nostalgia.

The redhead sighed and opened up a can of Pringles. She shoved a chip in her mouth. Sayaka didn't touch her food but she didn't dismissively toss it over her shoulder either.

That was progress, right?

"You," Kyouko said, over her munches, flashlight tucked under an armpit, light jerking drunkenly at every crunch, "turned into a witch. Me and Madoka tried to snap you out of your funk." She shrugged her shoulders. "Didn't seem to work. I made my soul gem explode," so you wouldn't be alone. "And now here we are. Any questions?"

"I turned into a _witch_?" Sayaka asked after a good minute of silence.,

Clearly her half-dreamed memories hadn't _quite_ prepared her for what had happened.

"You had fishy legs," Kyouko confirmed. "And you hit me wheels. And a sword." She stopped and added, pensively: "It was a very big sword."

Like, as big as her apartment big.

Sayaka appeared to be in troubleshooting mode again. Her face screwed up adorably when it was confused. "Err… wait, what?"

"What what?" Kyouko asked, already on her eighth or tenth Pringle.

"I turned into a witch… and then you made your soul gem explode?" The puella magi finally asked, scratching her head.

Kyouko felt her cheeks heat up. She tried to mumble something.

"Repeat that?" Sayaka asked-ordered. It looked like the other puella magi was moments away from tearing out her hair. Finding out that you hadn't just gone homicidal but actually turned into soul-eating monstrosity probably did that to a person.

"I didn't want you to be alone, **okay**?" Kyouko finally ground out, shoving half-a-dozen chips into her mouth and chewing furiously. "I was…mrpf… feeling sappy." She blushed and then waggled a chip at the other girl. "Don't expect me to do that again."

Sayaka's face exited troubleshooting mode. She looked appalled. "…you _died_ with me because you were feeling _sappy_? Kyouko, that's-"

"The height of stupidity, I know, I know. But I brought Madoka-chan there, I had to buy her some time to get out," the redhead said firmly. "Don't think I wouldn't have retreated if I had any other choice. It's all about me, remember?"

As an excuse, that was admittedly pretty weak.

Sayaka gave her a sceptical look but didn't point out the contradiction. She licked her lips. Probably a nervous gesture. "I'm… well, I'm sorry about the whole..." she broke off and said, distractedly, "did I _really_ look like an…an armored mermaid?"

"Yup."

Sayaka winced then shook her head. "Well. Um. Sorry about the whole," her hand made a complicated zigzagging motion that probably didn't mean anything, "trying to kill you thing."

Kyouko waved it off.

"Wasn't your fault," she said, biting into another Pringle. "None of us knew. Kyuubey never told us." She bit into the next chip more viciously. "When I get my _hands_ on that – that _thing _I am going to strangle the _life_ out of him."

"Yeah, he's a butthead," Sayaka agreed, sounding distracted.

For all their sakes, Kyouko chose to disregard Sayaka's _horrific_ lack of vocabulary. She'd teach the heroine how to swear later.

"That little _asshat_ was pretending to be this cute and cuddly little-" she made various strangling motions with her hands. It took a bit of juggling what with the water bottle, the can of Pringles and the flashlight but it was doable.

After that particular stress had been relieved, Sayaka – turning the box of pocky around in her hands – asked: "But how are we… I mean- alive? You said you made your soul gem go boom, right?"

"Beats me," Kyouko said, honestly enough, her train of thought cut off. Then she winked. It was hard to make out in the darkness, probably, but whatever. "Maybe this story had a happy ending. Where courage prevails and the good guys win and everybody goes home happy."

Sayaka nodded slowly but looked a little sceptical. Kyouko couldn't blame her: she didn't believe it herself.

Miracles had a cost.

What had been paid _this _time?

"Welp," the redhead declared, deciding that it was best if they put the whole embarrassing 'I-died-because-of-you' episode behind them. "Storytime's over. Any last questions?"

Sayaka opened her mouth to speak when they heard it.

It wasn't so much a noise as it was an _emotion_. A sharp, keening wail laced with regret and hunger. Kyouko's blood ran cold and although she wasn't consciously aware of it, her spear was already in her hand. A quick check revealed that Sayaka was holding her sword.

That had been the death cry of a witch.


	2. Chapter 2: Folded in Flowerless Fields

**Chapter Two: Folded in Flowerless Fields**

**By: ZipCode**

* * *

The sound died away to nothing and then the stillness after nothing before Sayaka quietly summed up all her thoughts:

"Fudge."

Kyouko stifled a sigh.

She _really_ was going to have to teach that girl how to swear.

* * *

"I don't get it," Sayaka said as they raced down the stairs, landing to landing, flashlight lighting the stairwell up erratically. Even the emergency lights were offline. "A witch is supposed to be in – in that other place, right?"

Kyouko grimaced, clutching her spear more tightly. "Something's different."

Damnit. She had thought they were _past_ all this crap.

Guess not.

Maybe they were dead. Maybe this was some form of Hell or Limbo or Purgatory where all they'd do is what they did in life. Battle witches forever and ever and ever as punishment for their sins-

She chuckled darkly.

"Kyouko?"

The redhead waved it off. "Was thinking of my dad."

That pretty much killed the conversation, which wasn't what she had intended at all, oops. It did make her think about that dream though – the one she'd had just before waking. Had that… had that been heaven? Kyouko shook her head. No use wondering about that now.

Especially since, well, _Dad_ probably wasn't in the same place Mom and Anko were. Not if the good book were right about things.

The two of them went from landing to landing, dashing down eight stories in half the time it would have taken the elevator to go straight down. They probably could have made the jump out the window but it was best to be miserly with ones energies.

"Maybe this is all a dream," Sayaka said musingly as they hit the ground floor.

"Shush." Kyouko warned. At the other girl's inquisitive glance: "Security in the lobby. I'll put him to sleep but it's better if he doesn't see us at all."

It wasn't illegal to leave at odd hours, per se, but according to the fridge no one had glimpsed a certain redhead in at least two months. She was still a little confused as to why they'd just disconnected the utilities and not thrown out her stuff out and gotten a new tenant but supposed there was some clause in the lease she'd signed that had forbidden it.

Lucky for them.

In retrospect though, she really should have taken the fire escape.

Oh well. Live and learn.

The door connecting the stairwell to the ground floor opened smooth as a whisper. Kyouko poked her head out, flashlight having been clicked off on the landing before, but either the guard either wasn't using his flashlight or his batteries had gone dead. She could perceive vague outlines of the receptionist's desk – thank god for this city's fixation with windows – but little else.

She took a tentative step forward.

Crap wooden paneling creaked as she put her weight down. Damn. Motioning Sayaka to stay still, she scurried forwards as fast as she could, almost hugging the floor she made her way forwards.

She was nearly there when a crash and yelp sounded from behind her. It was followed by a piercing: "_Ow._"

Well, there went Plan A.

Throwing caution to the wind, Kyouko threw herself forwards the last few feet, prepared to use a 'forget-me' spell (which, admittedly, was a sharp blow to the back of the head)-

Only to discover that the security desk was devoid of its attendant.

"Huh," she muttered. Then, on a whim, she turned the flashlight back on.

* * *

Sayaka rubbed her head where she had fallen.

It was silly – Kyouko had told her to stay behind but in the leering gloom her thoughts had started to bottleneck. Alone again, alone, alone-

Perhaps it had something to do with having been a witch. Perhaps she wasn't the person she thought it was. In any case, something in her just _couldn't_ take being alone again, even if she wasn't really alone.

Sayaka wasn't proud of it, but she panicked. After opening the door, her sword had snagged onto something and then she'd pitched face-first into a chair or a couch or maybe a potted plant. There had been a crash, the ringing sound of metal spinning on wood and then her head had smacked onto the ground, hard enough to draw blood and elicit a piercing: "_Ow._"

She lay there for a few moments, feeling embarrassed.

"Get it together," she grumbled to herself. "Mami wouldn't have gotten scared."

Before her wandering thoughts could get started on the subject of Mami – her inspiration, personal hero and so on – the red of Kyouko's flashlight winked back on existence, throwing everything into sharp contrast.

Then Kyouko started swearing.

After a moment, Sayaka noticed it.

Dust. Dust everywhere.

"No one's been here for _months_," Kyouko declared, leaning heavily on her spear as Sayaka approached.

Sayaka nodded wordlessly: she'd seen the dust too. Kyouko's room could be excused, even the stairwell – but at the receptionist's desk and in the lobby? Where, presumably, people passed day after day?

Something here was very wrong.

"I'll check out the witch," Sayaka declared, surprised that her voice was so steady. "You-"

"Wherever we're going we go _together_," Kyouko warned her.

"Alright," Sayaka agreed, doing her best to hide her relief. "What do you think we should do, then?"

There was a pause where the redhead stroked her chin.

"We'll need a grief seed eventually," Kyouko stated, starting to pace. "But we'll also need to double-check what happened to the apartment… and then," she grimaced, "ditto with the city."

Sayaka gawked at the enormity of the scale involved. "You think-"

"I don't know what to think," Kyouko countered. "But we're alive when we should be dead… and now _this…_" she gestured towards the dust,"I think anything's possible." The redhead faced her. "So, boss, what are our marching orders?"

Sayaka blinked at the unexpected curveball. "I'm not the boss."

"No, but you're definitely the hero," came the teasing reply. "So, marching orders?"

Sayaka tried to think it through logically but found her thoughts spinning in odd circles. "We… umm…" Well, they definitely needed more information. Maybe there was a logical reason for the apartment – or even sections of the city - to be abandoned even if they were relatively intact. Gas leak, biological hazards, terrorist threat and so on.

But that scream they had heard… and the lack of personnel dedicated to whatever emergency this was…

Odd. Very odd.

Very odd indeed.

Sayaka took a deep breath.

"We heard something-" she couldn't be sure if it was a witch anymore, "scream. That means there's definitely someone else alive out there, possibly in need of help." She straightened her shoulders. "We'll go find them, first."

Kyouko gave her a hearty slap on the back that nearly pitched Sayaka face first into the door, betraying the redhead warrior's nervousness. "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing on the streets. No cars, no late-night revellers, no street workers, no working streetlights – nothing. Just the pale glow of their soul gems and the sound of their feet hitting asphalt and Kyouko's laboured breathing.

After a few minutes, the redhead called for a halt, jamming the butt of her spear on the ground and taking in deep, gasping breaths.

"I'm _tired_," she growled, making it sound as if it were a personal affront, somehow.

Sayakaglanced at Kyouko's soul gem but it shone bright red without a hint of darkness.

Actually, it was a lot brighter than she remembered it being. They didn't even need to use the flashlight, which was good because batteries might be even scarcer than grief seeds.

"Do you want to go more slowly?" Sayaka offered. Kyouko grimaced and shook her head. "Nah. I'll keep up. Go on."

They ran but at a more sedate pace. Sayaka was worried about the sheen of sweat on Kyouko's face but the determined line that her mouth had settled in didn't look like it would brook too many more questions. At least not when it came to the senior puella magi's abilities.

Sayaka briefly wondered why _she_ wasn't affected in a similar way but then dismissed the thought. It really could be anything.

And – actually – yes, if she focused on it she _did_ feel a little pain. But it disappeared just as quickly as it came.

They traveled a few blocks at an easier pace before Sayaka stopped. After a few steps, so did Kyouko.

"Wha-"

"You're getting worse," Sayaka pointed out. Kyouko tried to laugh it off but Sayaka shook her head. "We'll walk."

For a moment it looked like the redhead would argue but then she deflated. "I… yeah, alright." She rubbed her calves and admitted, between panting breaths: "I don't know what's wrong with me today."

What if…

Hmmm.

* * *

Kyouko seethed.

What the heck! What the bloody _heck_. Tired? _Her?_ She had _run_ from her city to this one in the span of a single night. That had been a distance of no less than forty kilometres. Now, after a few blocks her legs were trying to crap out on her? And there was a stitch in her side? And sweat was stinging her eyes?

As an okama had said in an old cartoon: stop joooking around.

Kyouko stumbled and nearly couldn't catch herself – purely on reflex the butt of her spear hit the ground, shattered through an inch of concrete and stabilized her. She cursed again.

"Damnit, damnit, _damnit_."

"Are you okay?" Sayaka asked, sounding worried.

She should have probably felt angry at that tone in her voice – solicitous, caring, mothering – but somehow found it comforting instead. "I'm fine," Kyouko said gruffly.

It didn't look like Sayaka bought _that_ particular line for an instant, but neither did she call her out on it, which was all that Kyouko desired.

_Come on you stupid legs, _she said mentally. _Come on. Start working again. A godsdamned normal human could do this. You're freakin' _magic_._

Perhaps she should have been thankful that her legs didn't reply. Then she _really_ would have been certain she'd gone off the deep end and was more or less screwed.

As it was, she remained pissed that her legs decided to take a breather without her consent and collapsed into jelly. She slid down her spear and onto her knees.

"Kyouko-!"

"Gimme," Kyouko said taking in a deep breath, "a sec."

A sec quickly became a minute. Then two.

Her heartbeat steadied and then she finally climbed back to her feet. "Hoo. That was weird. Let's-"

Another scream pierced through the still air.

It took a moment for Kyouko to realize that this one wasn't a death cry.

* * *

"Leave," Kyouko barked.

The shadows before them warped and twisted unnaturally. Sayaka swallowed heavily before moving in front of the redhead, sword held up in an en guard position.

"_Sayaka_," Kyouko growled.

"Wherever we're going, we go together, remember?" Sayaka said, a lot more confidently than she felt. The grip on her sword was slick with sweat and she realized in a moment of clarity that she was a _lot_ more terrified of losing Kyouko than losing her own life.

Huh.

A shadow stabbed forwards, aiming to gut her and then there was no more time for epiphanies.

Shadows reaching, grasping, cutting. Perhaps it was the night that made it seem larger than it was, or perhaps it was merely her imagination – in any case, no matter how she slashed and hacked, the darkness continued to attack without respite. It felt cold too, like being cut with the sharpest of ice.

At the same time, though, it was weak. _Extremely_ weak. They felt like paper cuts.

Which was good because although Sayaka had never had the physical strength to equal Kyouko, before her 'death' she had been considerably stronger than her frame would have allowed for.

Now she felt like a thirteen year old waving around a sword she didn't actually know how to use.

* * *

Kyouko cursed.

Stupid-stupid-stupid. Did Sayaka think she was going to sacrifice herself or something? She would have set up her seal and _then _retreated. This was _not_ the place to be fighting witches willy-nilly. Especially since she was weakened and Sayaka was – despite being lovably heroic – kind of crap at killing witches.

Like right now. The teal-haired girl was already surrounded by the grasping shadows, sword awkwardly swinging up and down, more like a hammer than a sword. And since they were so close to each other a chain-link seal would separate her from the two of them, but not one from the other.

Kyouko briefly wished she had something to eat. Sugar always helped with thinking. She shoved the strap of the flashlight into her mouth and hung on.

Alright, focus.

Sayaka in the middle of some weird living shadow. Shadows, barely visible, streaming towards her too. Not an ideal position.

Was this a familiar? But why wasn't there a barrier? And why hadn't her soul gem tipped them off?

Oh, screw this noise.

Her spear broke into pieces, the chain that connected each wrapped firmly around Sayaka before ripping the Puella Magi away from the weaponized shadows. Punching her right hand into the palm of her left she summoned up a barrier of red chains as soon as the teal-haired girl was free.

... which would have probably worked _great_ if the shadows didn't just start oozing between the links.

Okay, time for a new plan.

Also: hit Sayaka over the head.

* * *

"It's weak," Sayaka reported. Kyouko tried not to stare at the multitude of cuts that adorned every visible inch of the sword-wielder. Already they were beginning to close. "Like really,_ really_ weak."

"You're not that strong either," Kyouko grumbled, dropping the flashlight back into her hand as she watched the shadows ooze through the links, little by little. Witches normally _couldn't_ get through the seal without taking the entire thing down which lead her to believe that it wasn't exactly a witch.

But the question then became: what the heck _was_ it?

And would it be better to flee or stand and fight?

Kyouko realized where her thoughts were going and had to chuckle. Like that was even a question. She was barely up to the challenge of _walking_ and she was planning to flee? Dream on, dream on. Sayaka could probably get away – as for a certain redhead, she'd have to be carried.

Stand and fight it was. She wrapped the flashlight's strap around her wrist a few times and hoped it would hold before flipping her spear around a few times.

And although she owed Sayaka a slap on the back of the head, there was also the chance that this was going to be dangerous.

"Sayaka... maybe you should run-"

Sayaka frowned before holding forth her sword, smiling. "Together, remember?"

Kyouko frowned and then had to laugh before touching her spear to the sword. "Together."

* * *

Author's Notes: Do you guys prefer faster updates and shorter chapters or longer chapters and slower updates? I feel like I'm just shoving half chapters atcha. Also, minor edit to the last chapter due to formatting issues.


	3. Chapter 3: The Grave of the Roses

**Chapter Three: The Grave of the Roses**

**By: ZipCode**

* * *

"Well," Kyouko said watching the shadows squirm through the red chains, spear at the ready, "this is kind of exciting."

"Really?" Sayaka asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot as she watched them, sword slick in her grip.

"No." Kyouko admitted.

The red chains shuddered once and then disintegrated as Kyouko dispelled it.

The creature was past.

Shadows glided towards them, only perceptible because they were darker than the night itself. Kyouko batted the tendrils aside, surprised at the lack of fleshy resistance. Sayaka hadn't been kidding when she said it was weak; there was barely any substance to them at all. She might as well have been cutting air.

Only the air fought back.

Whiplike darkness attacked from impossible angles: above, below, behind; like an army of wasps they surrounded and stung, aiming for blind spots, arteries, nerve clusters – anything that could produce a paralysing amount of pain with as little effort as possible. It didn't feel like a blade – more like hundreds of little points.

"Damn, it's cheeky," Kyouko muttered, spear splitting up into sections as she turned the chain and shaft into a spinning cage, holding the shadows at bay as she whirled it about her.

Some got through. Inevitable. Paper cuts. Think of them like paper cuts.

Really _cold_ paper cuts.

Cheeky. _Really _cheeky.

"Sayaka, get in here." Kyouko hissed, gesturing towards the chain cage that circled around her.

Sayaka, who was busy with her tried and true method of hitting things until they fell down took one look at Kyouko's makeshift shield and quailed. Cuts opened and bled freely as the shadows attacked her but were just as quickly erased. Clearly she remembered their first duel because she said: "Kyouko, you're going to hit me-"

"I'm _not_ going to hit you," Kyouko snapped, nerves fraying.

Obviously uncertain about the intelligence of the idea, the teal-haired girl took a deep breath, closed her eyes and then rushed forwards blindly. She only stopped when she hit Kyouko's side. The redhead grunted.

"See? I didn't hit you. Now guard my back. We're going on the offensive."

* * *

They set up a system. Kyouko took care of nearly everything that wandered in farther than ten feet, while Sayaka hit everything else that made it in, usually from the redhead's blind spots. They thus fought back to back, slowly moving into the mass of shadows. It was slow, ponderous work – no matter how many times they hit it, the creature seemed to just melt away and reform.

"You're doing good," Kyouko said encouragingly one foot heading in front of the other. It was pathetic but she was already tiring.

"You're doing better," Sayaka returned, sounding skittish as she edged backwards.

"Yeah, well, that's because I _am_ better," Kyouko sniffed, batting away a dozen arms.

"Like heck you are."

Kyouko grinned as a spectral limb sliced through her cheek, drawing blood. "Like hell. Say it with me. Like _hell_ you are."

"Buh," Sayaka said, caught off guard, nearly letting a shadow slice across her neck and open up an artery, "– wuh – _why?_"

Kyouko noticed the near slip despite having her back to the other girl. "Concentrate_._"

"I – I _am_. But why are you asking me to say h- h- things like that?"

"It's just a word," Kyouko said, rolling her eyes. "And it'll be _terrible_ if you kicked the bucket – _again_ – without having once said something stronger than 'heck.' I mean I threatened your boy toy and all you did was try to kill me. That's just _sad_."

"Kyosuke isn't… He's not my… _boy toy_," Sayaka said, sounding disgruntled.

"Yeah, you're the goody two-shoes sort, I know." Kyouko said, trying to mollify the other girl. "But still! Live a little! Cuss out the damn shadow bastard."

"Um- um-" Sayaka took a deep breath even as she swung her sword in more wild strokes. "D-d-damn you. Uh. Shadow b-b-"

Beat.

"I can't _say_ things like that, it's not, not _right._"

More eyes were rolled.

"Sad." Kyouko said, shaking her head. "So, _so_ sad."

"Well, I'm _sorry_ I'm not up to your delinquent _standards-_"

The monster screeched – surprisingly childishly – as Kyouko's spear hit something meatier. "Ah-_hah_," Kyouko crowed. "Talk's over. It's _showtime_."

Shadows retreated back, heading off to protect whatever she'd hit. Kyouko's spear joined together back into a proper weapon. "Let's go."

"Wha-"

"Hut hut, time waits for no man… Except Homura, I suppose."

"What?"

But then Kyouko was rushing forwards and Sayaka had no choice but to grit her teeth and follow the insane puella magi straight into the heart of the darkness.

* * *

It was only later that Sayaka would realize that Kyouko's attempt at levity was there to calm _her_ down, keep her from panicking or doing something self-sacrificing and 'heroic'. Not that Sayaka would think it heroic - heroic was what Kyouko had done, making herself go boom just to keep a girl that had already turned into a witch from being alone.

But that would only be later. When she had time to think and to wonder _why_ exactly someone would do something like that and then come to some ponderous conclusions.

As of the moment where she was running down the road chasing after living shadows? She was _pissed_. Why did that little hooligan think that swearing was so important, anyway? They were just words! Just a few unimportant words!

She slashed through offending shadows almost instinctively. She wasn't sure how Kyouko knew how to see them, to her it was like trying to see black on black. Nearly impossible.

"Why are we running?"

"I hit something!" Kyouko said, sounding gleeful. Tired, but gleeful. Total adrenaline junkie. Sayaka wasn't looking forward to having to drag Kyouko back to the apartment, because that sort of intensity after the near exhaustion did _not _herald good things. "Didn't you hear it scream?"

"Kyouko, your-" Sayaka said, trying to put what she had to say gently. In the end she couldn't quite manage to say that the redhead was a loudmouth. "-weapon makes a lot of noise."

Kyouko flicked her hair negligently as she stabbed into the shadows. "Yeah, well, trust me – monster screamed. We're onto it for sure. Got it on the ropes and everything."

More shadowy tendrils attacked but they seemed like half-hearted attempts at best and Sayaka was forced to acknowledge that Kyouko might have a point. The main trouble was that the shadow seemed to be retreating faster than Kyouko could pursue.

And it _could_ be a trap. Nothing about… well, _any_ of this seemed close to usual.

"It's getting away," Sayaka was forced to point out.

Kyouko growled, hooked her spear into the crook of her elbow and jammed her hands together. "Not if I have a say-"

Red chains burst into existence, covering the street in a maze of fencelike structures.

Sayaka decided that _that_ was something she could stand to learn. Mami had had her golden ribbons. Surely _she_ could do something like that, right? Maybe this really cool wall of blades that would spin in place and-

The shadows screamed again – and this time Sayaka _did_ hear it. It sounded an awful lot like a child, voice warped by terror. One of the fences near the middle shook.

Kyouko smiled nastily. "Gotcha."

Then the redhead swayed and collapsed in the middle of the street, half-smile still on her lips.

* * *

There was an old book whose first lesson pretty much amounted to 'don't panic.'

Of course, that not being enough, the second or third book pretty much amounted to the goodly advice of 'alright, _now_ you can panic' and much as she would hate to admit it, Sayaka took option two and actually grabbed Kyouko by her shirt front and shook her around a few times, close to tears.

There might have been a little hysterical screaming involved.

After a few fruitless minutes of… maybe-hysterics, the little voice in the back of her head that kept her calm even after she had been turned into some sort of god-forsaken _zombie_ took over. It wasn't a nice voice – in fact, it was kind of bitter and rather mean-spirited – but it kept her together. She checked the soul gem on Kyouko's neck and after removing it discovered that it shone as brightly as ever.

Pondering to herself over what might have precipitated Kyouko's collapse, Sayaka calmed down, replaced the soul gem and tried to wake her up. Pinched her ears, clapped several times over her head, an attempted tickle-

Nope.

"Great," the swordswoman muttered.

Shouldering the redhead onto her back, Sayaka winced as her muscles complained but then soldiered through the pain. Her muscles would repair themselves near instantaneously.

She gazed at the crisscrossing network of chains separating her from their quarry.

"Great," Sayaka muttered.

The witch screamed again.

Sayaka glanced at Kyouko's head which was lolling against her shoulder and sighed.

* * *

Kyouko jerked awake.

Her first impression was that it was really comfortable. Her second impression was that everything _hurt_.

"Did anyone get the license plate number?" Kyouko croaked, opening her eyes. Sayaka's face a foot away from her own. It took about a minute to realize that she must have been cradled in Sayaka's lap whereupon her cheeks turned cherry red.

"Um-bwuh-hi?"

A gentle snore answered her.

Getting her outrageously high breathing rate under control, Kyouko tried to take stock of the situation. They were still in the street – and since she could make out a lot more details than before, it also appeared as if sometime during her impromptu nap the sun had risen.

…did the two of them fall asleep in the _middle of the street?_

Why yes. Yes they did.

Fancy that.

Extricating herself from Sayaka's lap, Kyouko got up and winced. She stretched a few times but it still felt like her muscles had been turned into jelly and then lit on fire. And god, she was _starving_.

…the city was still deserted, though.

"Yeah, that's not right," Kyouko murmured, as she took in the absolute lack of movement. Her red fence still stood but she could tell at a glance that the shadow creature was long gone. A hand motion dispelled the lingering structures.

She blinked. Narrowed her eyes.

What had been obscured by the night and by the fence was…

"Blood." Kyouko murmured, staring at the small dots that littered the ground, like breadcrumbs in a fairy tail of old.

She glanced back at Sayaka who was still snoring away.

"Huh."

* * *

It was easier carrying Sayaka on her back than it should have been, what with her muscles barely allowing _her_ to stand let alone carry someone. Sayaka murmured several times while Kyouko hoisted her up but didn't wake.

Following the trail, Kyouko was well aware that this went under the heading of 'probably a really, _really_ bad idea.'

Still. Witches didn't bleed. Not conventionally, anyway. Their blood didn't coagulate and go dark, be barely visible on the asphalt it had landed on.

Then again, witches didn't exactly walk on asphalt period. They had their own little self-contained barrier dimensions.

All of this was too weird.

And Kyouko had the odd feeling that this was…

Well. If her thoughts were right she'd rather not have Sayaka crushing herself in guilt. And it wasn't like she could leave Sayaka alone either – so, carrying it was. If it _was_ an injured witch, well, it was broad daylight now. The advantages of shadows that could barely cut through skin would be few indeed.

She made followed the barely visible trail but it ended up at a manhole cover.

Kyouko stared at it for a few moments before sighing. Right. If it was light, seek shade. Nowhere darker than underground.

Stomach growling, Kyouko trudged off to go look for food, swordswoman hanging on her back.

From up above, a pair of eyes followed her leave.

X X X X X X

Sayaka woke up inside a pharmacy.

This not being where she expected to wake up, she jerked drunkenly to her feet and nearly got into a fight with an aisle of greeting cards. Well wishes tumbled about her before she realized what she was doing.

Ambient light shone through the glass storefront, setting into sharp definition the dust in the air.

Kyouko stepped in from around the corner, munching on a bag of potato chips. "Oi, calm down."

"What – where -" Sayaka inhaled a bunch of dust and started hacking.

"Not a morning person, huh?" Kyouko said sympathetically. She hesitated before offering the bag of chips to Sayaka.

The gears in Sayaka's brain started to turn. Chips, store, lack of people-

"I – _Kyouko_. What are you _doing?_" She said, between coughs. She swung her hand, trying to clear the dust.

"Eating?" The redhead asked, looking innocent.

"Put that back." Sayaka growled, getting her breathing under control. She looked around herself, expecting a guard or cashier or _someone_ to spring up behind them and start reading them their rights and asking for their parents' numbers.

Kyouko shrugged. "There's no one to buy it from."

"There's no one… to buy it from?" The teal-haired girl wrinkled her nose in confusion. She suddenly had a bad feeling about all this dust. Just like inside the apartment lobby. "But-"

Kyouko nodded. "Yup. We're all alone. No one else here."

"No one at all."

* * *

Sayaka looked down at the manhole.

She felt inexplicably embarrassed. The righteous indignation about Kyouko stealing food had made her forget about the whole falling asleep thing. Now that they were back on the street and the witch had clearly gotten away the righteous indignation had died away near completely and was replaced by a feeling of ice in the pit of her stomach.

"I really meant to stay awake," Sayaka said, the excuse sounding weak even to her own ears.

"Yeah, well, you're lucky nothing else got the drop on us. Two innocent," as if in counterpoint, Kyouko munched on more stolen goods, spraying bits of chip everywhere, "beautiful girls alone at night fall asleep in the middle of the street? All sorts of creepy-crawlies could take interest-"

"_Kyouko_," Sayaka squeaked, scandalized.

"Yeah, well, I'm just telling it as it is." She bopped Sayaka on the side of the head. "Next time, wake me up."

"I tried-"

"Try harder," Kyouko said gently. "Just be glad nothing worse happened." Melancholically: "Speaking of worse, we better get a grief seed. Or else I'm going to find out what _my_ no doubt terribly Freudian nightmare-self looks-"

"I think that our soul gems aren't dimming."

Kyouko stopped mid-sentence. Blinked several times. "Really?"

Sayaka nodded her head, smiling although looking a trifle uncertain of herself. "I think so."

Taking her soul gem off whereupon it turned back into its egglike form, Kyouko took a sceptical look at it before her face lit into a smirk.

"Ha _ha_. Even if it just takes longer to dim - _awesome_. About time something went right." Musingly: "Maybe that's why my stamina's crap. It's conserving power automatically or something like that."

"Could be," Sayaka said, non-committally.

"In any case: _great_. That's a load off my mind." Kyouko scuffed the ground with her boot. "So, boss, what do we do now?"

Sayaka looked around the dead, quiet city.

"Find out where everyone went, I guess. Start with Madoka-chan and my parents and-" Sayaka sighed, looking up. Getting across the city without access to public transport would take _hours_.

Kyouko rubbed her hands together, looking surprisingly gleeful.

"I have a _great_ idea how to do just that."

* * *

"We're hotwiring a car," Sayaka said disbelievingly as she shoved a pretzel into her mouth. She still had concerns about this pseudo-stealing but without anyone there to pay it seemed like a rather silly concern. It wasn't like people would begrudge them for _eating_ while an entire city had up and vanished.

"We're not just hotwiring a _car,_" Kyouko said, sounding scandalized as she surfaced from beneath the car's dashboard. "We're hotwiring a 1967 Chevrolet _Impala_. Do you know how rare these things are in Japan?"

Sayaka was still a little concerned about how easily Kyouko had jimmied the lock but decided that now wasn't the time for that particular conversation.

"So it's older than my mom _and_ American." Sayaka said skittishly. Walking into a parking lot with all its cars there but knowing that all the people that drove these cars were missing was… disconcerting. "Do you even know what you're doing?"

"Of course," Kyouko said cheerfully. She patted the car. "Do you think I'd risk my baby?"

"Yes," Sayaka said, without missing a heartbeat.

Kyouko sighed. "You'll see. This'll go-" there was a huge spark from beneath the dashboard and a startled squeak before Kyouko stood up, looking frazzled. "I think I'll start practicing with the other ones. Over there."

Sayaka didn't _quite_ smirk but it was a close thing and nodded. "Of course."

Beat.

A thought occurred to the teal-haired girl and she nearly groaned.

"You learned this watching movies, didn't you?"

Kyouko looked guilty. "I – well – maybe?"

Sayaka covered her face in her hands.

Walking. They were definitely walking.

* * *

"It should have worked," Kyouko grumbled from behind the dashboard of a Honda civic. "It's so _simple_."

Sayaka was currently trying to hold in her lunch. And internal organs. "Kyouko-"

Landscape blurred past them, painfully past. Sayaka wasn't sure how Kyouko could be clocking more than a hundred and seventy-five kilometres an hour in a family car but wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"I mean, it's just a bunch of wires that you fiddle together, right?" The redhead's hand hit the steering wheel, making the car jump and Sayaka go green. "I mean, the key here was still in the ignition! That's just – that's just pathetic! What if we need a quick getaway? What if-"

"Kyouko," Sayaka said, a little desperately, "we should slow-"

Kyouko continued ranting, oblivious about Sayaka's impending motion sickness coupled to hysteria. "And I left behind my baby. What am I-"

A bright yellow car stationed in the middle of the road came towards them with punishing speed. Mostly because they were heading towards it at speeds that were decidedly _not safe_.

"Kyouko – _we're going to crash!_"

Kyouko veered out of the way of the parked car and laughed it off. "Ah, don't worry. I practiced loads in the arcade."

Beat.

"You – _this is your first time driving?_"

"Yeah, but don't worry-"

Sayaka did the logical thing and shut her eyes, pretending _very_ hard that this wasn't happening to her and she wasn't there.

Yup. Not here.

Not here.

Oh god, they were all going to die in a giant explosion, just like in the movies…

* * *

"Homura's apartment is missing."

Sayaka cracked open a tentative eye. Since they weren't moving anymore she allowed herself to open the other. They were looking at what appeared to be a shopping mall. The car was idling.

Only… Sayaka didn't remember any shopping malls being _here_ before.

"This isn't right," Sayaka murmured. "There used to be this old, Victorian-looking-"

"Homura's apartment," Kyouko said grimly. "It's where the girl lived. Dunno where she got the money, but she rented out the entire damn thing. Made it pretty fancy on the inside too."

Sayaka felt a spike of irrational anger at the supposed transfer student but choked it down. "Really?"

"Yup." Beat. "Now it's... been replaced."

Kyouko sighed.

"I don't like this." The redhead hit the gas causing Sayaka to squeak in fright. "Now keep your eyes open, I don't know where exactly Madoka lives…"

* * *

After another harrowing ride courtesy of Kyouko's rather… interesting idea of what exactly constituted driving, they made it to Madoka's house. Unlike Homura's apartment, it was still intact and visibly the same structure: just dark and empty looking.

Sayaka wondered if it were disloyal of her not to first check up on her own parents but then dismissed the thought. Kyuubey had been… insistent on Madoka becoming a puella magi. Now that she knew what exactly that _entailed_ – making a wish and then paying for it with mind, body and soul and Sayaka was forced to wonder if… perhaps, Madoka had wished them back to life, thinking the cost worth that particular sacrifice.

She wasn't sure if she could take that sort of guilt.

And she wasn't sure if she could stand knowing the _answer_ either because sometimes, _sometimes_ she thought that maybe it was.

Thus it wasn't _solely_ due to Kyouko's questionable driving habits that made her rather green-ish when she got out of the passenger side of the car, taking a look at the Kaname homestead.

"Pretty swanky," Kyouko said admiringly, turning off the ignition and pocketing the key.

"Her mother was a CEO or something like that," Sayaka said, scratching her head in near embarrassment. It was true: Madoka had a _ridiculously_ huge house, especially for Japan. Her bathroom could probably house a family of two and fit in a small kitchenette as well as a doublet of futons. It would probably be a bit of a smack to the face to someone who had grown up hoarding apple cores. "It's-"

Kyouko waved airily. "Pffft, I'm the reformed bad guy, remember? Don't get all worked up on my account." She smacked her hands together and rubbed them gleefully. "Let's go burgle your best friend's place. Bet there's plenty of valuables in there."

Sayaka shot her a _look_ to which Kyouko's reply was laughter. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Let's be upfront about this and knock."

* * *

No one replied to the knocks, which was pretty much what they had both been expecting, Kyouko knew.

The redhead was about to force open the locks through sheer force when Sayaka proved that being the best friend had all sort of perks and found the extra key, hidden in the backyard beneath a potted plant. A boost past the gate and they found it together, easily enough.

…and holy crap, this house had its own _garden_. A house in the city with enough room for a _garden_. Although it was overgrown with weeds and the like, Kyouko knew more than enough to recognize the supports that would have allowed the crawling vines of peas to grow as well as the plots that would have likely enough had tomatoes or pumpkins or something.

Sayaka caught her staring and had an odd, almost embarrassed look in her eyes. Kyouko shrugged. Sayaka had started acting odd around Madoka's place – probably wondering where her best friend was.

They entered the house by the front door.

Like the rest of the city, Madoka's house was empty and thick with choking dust. The smell that had been present in the apartment was missing though: there was no smell of rot or lingering decay. In fact, there wasn't much of a smell at all, just dust and maybe the scent of something sharp and spicy.

"Mrs. Kaname? Mr. Kaname?" Sayaka called tentatively. After a moment of silence: "Madoka-chan? Tatsuya-kun?"

"Tatsuya-kun?" Kyouko mouthed.

"Her little brother," Sayaka replied, whispering. "Three years old. Cute little guy."

They stood there in the vestibule, ears straining for the slightest sound. Kyouko finally broke it, kicking her boots off and motioned Sayaka in.

"Don't think anyone's home. Maybe they left a note."

* * *

As it turned out, there _was_ a note. Right there on the kitchen table, at the far end. It was a good thing that Madoka's house was half glass because without it, they probably wouldn't be able to see anything. As it was, Kyouko nearly missed it.

She picked it up and squinted at the beady characters curiously.

**JUNKO.**

**WAS.**

**HERE.**

"You recognize the writing?" Kyouko asked, biting into one of the chocolate bars she'd taken from the pharmacy. It was a trifle dry.

Sayaka looked it over. "No." She turned it over but the other side of the page was blank. "There wasn't anything else?"

Kyouko shrugged her shoulders. "Not that I could see."

"Huh," Sayaka murmured, looking intently at the paper. "A clue?"

Kyouko mimed taking a pipe out of her mouth. "Why of course, my dear Watson. This paper -"

Sayaka looked at her, almost hopefully.

"-indicates that Junko is almost certainly not here." Beat. "Well, probably, anyway. We _should_ check the closets and such. Just in case this paper is a red herring or something, trying to lull us into a state of complacency." She bit into her chocolate, taking off nearly half of the bar and snapping it into her mouth with a few crunches. "Who is Junko, anyway?"

"Junko is Madoka's mother," Sayaka said, frowning at her. Kyouko shrugged her shoulders as she finished the chocolate bar and gave her a 'what-can-you-do' face.

After a moment, Kyouko did add, contemplatively: "But how did they get in and then out of the house and lock the door behind them? Maybe Madoka left it. Or her parents did."

"That doesn't look like Madoka's writing," Sayaka said. "And this… message is honestly kind of creepy."

"True enough," Kyouko allowed. She snuck glances at the fridge. It stood there invitingly but probably only held spoiled foodstuffs. "We should probably search the rest of the house. I mean, this is definitely a sign, right?"

"It could have just been a game," Sayaka said, sounding dubious even as the words came out of her mouth.

"Yeah, well, game or not, it's the first thing that makes me think that an entire city _didn't_ just vanish overnight. Let's get looking. I'll start with the fridge."

* * *

The fridge was dark and empty.

So were most of the cabinets, which Kyouko found a little bizarre. It was like this house had been… emptied, which was definitely not the case for the other places they had seen. Those were stocked with goods as if people had simply stopped coming in.

The oven, however, held a note.

**TOMOHISA**.

**WAS.**

**HERE.**

The _inside_ of the oven.

"Well that's… not exactly reassuring," the redhead muttered. "Found another one," she called, waving to Sayaka who was busy looking through a pile of old newspaper that had been stuffed into the recycling bin.

"Really?" Sayaka asked. "Where'd you-?"

Kyouko pointed wordlessly at the oven and Sayaka grimaced. "Well… that's… yeah. Huh."

"This house is all sorts of creepy," Kyouko muttered.

"It wasn't always," Sayaka said, staring contemplatively at the piece of paper, as if her eyes could pierce past the mystery it represented. She pointed at the stack of newspaper. "Dates until about a week after we went. Nothing unusual in it. No nuclear plant meltdown, no toxic waste spill, nothing."

"Hmmm," Kyouko murmured, thinking about Walpurgis Night. She'd never fought in one but at the same time, a Walpurgis Night had never wiped out a city before.

Or had it? Had it and everyone else just forgotten about it…

"Well," Kyouko decided. "Let's keep looking."

Nothing else showed up on the ground floor except more dust and two forgotten packages of instant noodles. Kyouko grabbed them and at Sayaka's look mouthed: "What?"

Sayaka rolled her eyes. "Nevermind."

On the staircase there was a dark stain. Kyouko bent down but she wasn't a forensics expert. For all she knew it could be paint or old spilt coffee or something.

"Kyouko?" Sayaka asked, pausing near the top.

Kyouko clicked on the flashlight for better lighting. "Was that there before?"

Sayaka came back and looked down. "Not sure. Maybe?"

Kyouko shrugged and clicked the flashlight off. "Oh well."

* * *

"Is that written in _lipstick_?" Kyouko asked, flashlight scanning the ginormous bathroom. Written on the mirror were giant pink words.

**TATSUYA.**

**IS NOT.**

**HERE.**

"I'm not sure," Sayaka murmured. "Doesn't lipstick dry out after a while? This looks fresh." She touched a finger to the mirror, it came away thick with dust and she shook it before nodding. "It's paint. Or ink. Something that stays."

"Well," Kyouko muttered, "it's not quite the same as the messages downstairs. Does that mean we should expect to see Madoka's little brother some time soon? Or would it be the opposite?"

"I don't know," Sayaka murmured. "But this – this all feels _wrong_ somehow."

"Yeah," Kyouko admitted. "That it does."

Sayaka continued staring at the words for a bit and then shook her head. "Let's go see Madoka's room."

* * *

"Holy _fuck_." Kyouko breathed.

Sayaka wasn't sure she agreed with the use of profanity but she agreed with the sentiment.

Unlike the rest of the house, Madoka's room was a disaster. Things had been strewn around without care or concern, dolls lay scattered on the ground while clothes lay just about everywhere. Worse was the brown-red color of old blood that colored _everything_. Walls, dolls, pillows…

And nailed to the walls were Kyuubeys. Dozens upon dozens of Kyuubeys. All of them covered in blood and gore, made to spell out another message.

**MADOKA.**

**IS NOT.**

**HERE.**

"Well." Kyouko whispered after a moment of awkward silence. "Where is she?"

* * *

Author's Note: Should I put this genre into horror? I'm trying very hard to stay closer to suspense than to horror but the line gets kind of blurry sometimes. Right, thanks for reviewing! Seeya next chapter!


End file.
